Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Senate Torture Report (executive summary)

lifted from Robert Waldmann’s Stochastic Thoughts Dan here…lest this issue disappear, I am taking my cue from an earlier set of posts from Waldmann and reposting here. Senate Torture Report (executive summary) I am starting at page 192 III “Intelligence Acquired and CIA Representations on the Effectiveness of the CIA’s Enhanced Interrogation Techniques to Multiple […]

Policing and a culture of protect and serve

Dan here…In the middle and late eighties grants went out to train police on methods of intervention into domestic violence.  In my experience on the North Shore Boston, police chiefs seemed to agree this was the most dangerous situation officers faced on a routine basis.  There were also efforts to re-orient police departments to be […]

A little reminder: 20 years after being ordered to tally cop shootings, the DOJ still isn’t doing it

Via Dailykos, the story points to the lack of information on police-related killings: … But as Lee (and other reporters) have pointed out, these numbers, striking as they are, just aren’t reliable. Together with some colleagues and help from criminologists, Richard Florida atThe Atlantic magazine’s CityLab took a look in August at the available statistics […]

Guest post: 8.2 Miles from Mutuality

by Rev. Nathan Detering (First Parish church, Sherborn, MA, delivered October , 2014) Guest post:    8.2 Miles from Mutuality “We are caught in an escapable network of mutuality, Tied in a single garment of destiny. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice Everywhere.” How many of us have heard the words before, just by […]

About that “State and local governments are closer to the people” thing …

Indeed, they are; state and local governments are closer to the people.  It’s just that the people they’re closer to probably aren’t, well … you. So, here’s a question: Why isn’t, say, Kay Hagan, who’s running against the Speaker of the State House*, or Charlie Crist, who’s running against Florida governor Rick Scott, um, mentioning this in their […]

I predict that the Supreme Court will grant the emergency petition in the Texas voter-ID case, and reinstate the district court’s stay of enforcement until after the November election.

I predict that the Supreme Court will grant the emergency request in the Texas voter-ID case, and reinstate the district court’s stay of enforcement until after the November election. Which, best as I can tell, makes me a minority of exactly one. I don’t have time to elaborate much, but I did address pretty thoroughly […]

The Big Marquette Law School Walker/Burke Poll Coincidence

The latest Marquette Law School poll shows Scott Walker with 47 percent of likely voters, and Mary Burke with 47 percent of likely voters. Despite the last Marquette poll showing Walker up five points, the new poll, along with the polling average, shows this is very much a race. — Paul Waldman, the Washington Post, this evening […]

It’s long, long, LONG past time for Congress to restructure the Judicial Misconduct Complaint mechanism so that it’s no longer a comically flagrant sham designed and controlled completely by members of the federal judiciary. Really. It’s long, long, long, long past time.

Yes, folks. This really is what happened. And were that not such a high-profile matter because the conduct at issue occurred very publicly and was reported in the news media, the misconduct-complaint process never would have gotten beyond the mechanical first step. I’ve mentioned before here at AB that every time there is a movement […]